1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to flexible display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat panel displays, e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays may be used, e.g., in notebook computers, monitors, television sets, etc., in place of twisted nematic (TN) LCDs, which were generally employed in small display devices, e.g., wristwatches and electronic calculators in the 1970s. Although LCDs, which are relatively light-weight and generally consume relatively low amounts of power, are currently being employed in portable information display devices, an advanced product that is lighter and/or more flexible is desired.
Most of the currently-available portable display devices, which employ glass substrates, have poor flexibility. LCDs and OLED displays generally involve complicated processing steps. For example, fabrication of LCDs generally involves alignment of a liquid crystal layer, cell gap formation, etc., and fabrication of OLED displays generally involves treatment of an organic light emitting layer for increasing the emission efficiency and the lifetime, encapsulation of the organic light emitting layer, etc.
Technology for forming a liquid crystal active layer by selective illumination of ultraviolet light (UV) onto a liquid crystal polymer complex disposed on a plastic substrate is being considered. However, such a UV illumination method employs a specific polymer material, a specific liquid crystal material, and a specific UV light having a limited wavelength range, and a thickness of the liquid crystal active layer may not be kept uniform, and the size of pixels may not be adjustable. Also, because currently available plastic substrates have poor elasticity, a flexible display device including one or more plastic substrates may not have satisfactory flexibility.